Beyond a Glimmer of Hope
by Phantom Rosabelle
Summary: *AU. Really, really AU.* Sometimes home is the last place you want to be. Warning: major character death.
1. Prologue: The Inbetween

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the Power Rangers.

**Notes: _THIS IS NOT A FLUFFY STORY_.** I... really cannot emphasize this enough. If (mostly off-screen, should it matter to you) major character death is in any way triggering to you, please pass over this story. :)

Also, hi! Remember me? I used to write like a fiend and post new chapters five times a day. I no longer do this, clearly. I suppose one could make an argument for quality over quantity, but... well, maybe not, heh. *grins* However, this one will not drag on for years on end. I'm aiming for about seven chapters and an epilogue, and (I know I say this every time I post with absolutely dreadful follow-through, but I really do try) I hope to have it finished completely in the next couple of months.

**Beyond a Glimmer of Hope**  
**Prologue: The In-between**

The cold was of that miserable, bone-deep sort. Andros tucked his hands, already hidden in the warmest pair of gloves Phantom had been able to find, beneath his armpits and huddled below the layers of blankets wrapped around his shoulders. Just this morning he would have refused this comfort.

It seemed unimportant to continue pretending now.

Andros closed his eyes. The _should-have-been_ had not gone; it lingered, calling out for his return, and had he been able to, he would have gone to it willingly.

He was not in the habit of wishing. It accomplished nothing and left him empty and aching for what he did not have and never would. But had he done so... It was everything he would have wished for.

To his right, the Phantom Ranger sat straight-backed in the pilot's seat, wrapped in the rest of the blankets. Andros had taken the gloves on the condition that Phantom would take the hat, and so it was.

It was so _cold_. He rearranged the blankets as he leaned forward to squint at the navigation screen, mostly obscured with condensation. They couldn't be too far from the Megaship now, he thought—they had only been an hour out when it had happened, and it felt far longer than he thought it should, even with their speed reduction factored in.

There was more to make him antsy—besides the loss of the environmental controls and the damaged thrusters, the shields were at half-strength and rapidly draining as Phantom had diverted anything that could be spared to the thrusters just to get them moving again, and their cloak was long gone. A single velocifighter would probably tear straight through them, should they happen upon one.

Phantom exhaled loudly enough to catch his attention. He caught himself before he jumped as a silence almost more terrible than the cold shattered, instead raising his head to eye her calmly. They had spent enough time in each other's company that even he had learned to notice when she had something to say.

Zhane would have been proud of him. Or amused. Or both, maybe.

"We're nearly there," Phantom said crisply.

"Good." He grit his teeth to keep them from chattering. "I'll notify DECA to be ready for docking."

"It's done." She tapped at the console before her before she glanced at him. "She's waiting for us. Perhaps she can confirm that this... phenomenon we've experienced was an interdimensional gateway."

If it were possible to do so, DECA would be able to. But... "No," Andros said, shaking his head. "She would only be able to do that if she'd been there herself."

Phantom made some quiet sound to acknowledge his words and, with a nod to him, turned her attention back to guiding them back. Andros studied her profile with a frown. Five years they had been allies. Nearly a year she had been in permanent residence aboard his ship, and never once had he seen her unmorphed.

He wasn't sure he'd expected her to be a woman.

He was definitely sure that he hadn't expected her to be _this_ woman, whose face he hadn't seen three hours ago but he recognized as the face of someone he had known for years—and maybe he had, in that place he had gone to.

She had been in the company of that other woman when he had seen her. The Ranger. One of his Rangers.

Andros swallowed as an echo of laughter washed over him. He had no Rangers. There had only ever been Zhane.

Just for a moment he was warm again, surrounded—

_He should have known better than to agree to this. Now there was a knee digging into his stomach and Zhane was mumbling near his ear. Something about rabbits. Andros was just sleepy enough that it made perfect sense, and closed his eyes again as someone touched his hair..._

Then it was gone again and he was left reeling, shivering from another kind of cold. Andros clenched his jaw before asking, "How much longer?"

"Ten minutes," Phantom said. "Perhaps a bit longer, but not much. Andros," she added, and there was a shift in her tone that made him stiffen. "Will you—"

"Fine," he said tersely. "I'll be fine."

"I apologize." She spared him a glance. "That was intrusive of me. I'll leave it to DECA to sort you out."

He inclined his head to her, but she, already turned forward again, missed it. Unable to watch her any longer, Andros let his eyes slide forward. The view screen was damaged, as well; what he saw now were the stars as they were from here—small shimmers far beyond his reach.

"My name is not Miranda." Phantom spoke again without looking at him, and this time he did start as she caught him unaware. "It must have been, there, but though I have answered to many names Miranda is not among them."

"I..." Andros hesitated. "Do you have another one?"

"As I said," she sighed, white-knuckled as she gripped the controls, "I have many. Phantom suffices."

"Of course." He was the one who had been presumptuous this time. They were allies. They were teammates, even. But they were not friends, and he should not have questioned her. "I'm sorry."

"Thank you." White clouds hung in the air when she exhaled this time. "There," she announced, minutes later, as she slid her hands beneath her blankets, "DECA will pull us in from here. We're within teleportation range."

Andros raised his morpher, but did not activate it. He stared down at it, waiting; for what, he couldn't say, but he sat there frozen until Phantom spoke again.

"I shouldn't ask you this," she murmured, fumbling at her own morpher with stiff fingers, "but I must. Was it real, do you think? What we saw?"

"No." He was able to shake himself, then, and he tapped at his morpher. "Not for us. DECA."

Instantly, he was gone, the ship around him dissolving into a crimson haze, but Phantom's next whisper haunted him as the world re-formed. "Will you think me a fool, then, that now I will mourn the loss of a love I've never known?"


	2. Chapter I: The Before

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the Power Rangers.

**Notes:** Dari is pronounced "dah-ree" not "dairy".

**Beyond a Glimmer of Hope**  
**Chapter I: The Before **

"It is time to wake up, Andros."

"I know, DECA." He squinted when she turned the lights up, causing the bunk above him to swim in and out of focus. "I'm already awake."

For once, she deemed that an acceptable response. That, or she just didn't deign to answer, because he couldn't remember the last time a morning had gone by without an argument or four over his state of consciousness. At least, he thought so until he made it halfway to the bathroom without being told to make his bed.

Andros paused, the floor cool against his bare feet as he hesitated. "DECA?"

"Yes, Andros?"

His frowned deepened when she blinked at him. "Nothing."

* * *

Phantom was already on the Bridge when he arrived. Despite the still-early hour, Andros wasn't surprised. He rose early most days to run through a few sims before breakfast, but he had more than once spotted Phantom roaming the halls. Whether Phantom was an early riser or just needed no sleep, Andros didn't know. He had never asked, and Phantom had never volunteered that information.

"Good morning, Andros," Phantom greeted him calmly.

Stifling a yawn, Andros nodded to acknowledge Phantom as he shrugged his jacket into place. "Is this where we are?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at the map Phantom had pulled up onto the viewing screen. The pattern of stars was familiar to him, but it wasn't where he expected to find himself today. "Approaching Eltar?"

"Yes."

When no explanation was forthcoming, Andros raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

If he didn't know better, he thought he might have actually startled Phantom—the helmeted head turned towards him and it was a long moment before he was informed, "Our presence was requested. There was an urgent transmission from Sera early this morning. I assumed DECA would have—"

"She didn't." Andros resisted the urge to rub his forehead. "DECA?"

"I'm sorry, Andros." DECA's eye blinked on and off several times before she added, "You were asleep."

She had never hesitated to interrupt his sleep before. He tried not to sigh. That wasn't important now. "What did Sera want?"

Phantom's answer wasn't what Andros had expected—cryptic was what the Eltaran Rangers did better than anyone, and their leader most of all, but Phantom said only, "She requested that we join her team on Eltar before their midday. What's left of the Inquirian team will be there, as well."

A deep uneasiness began to well up within him and Andros closed his eyes, sighing deeply. "Aquitar surrendered."

"That was my conclusion." Phantom paused. "DECA agreed that it was likely."

Andros couldn't say that he was surprised. Aquitar had been a battleground for nearly five years now, evacuations had begun three years ago, and those that remained had been under constant siege for the last month.

"They've fought well," he said at last.

Five years.

He had only lasted two.

"Yes," Phantom said quietly. "They have."

They stood there in silence a moment longer, staring at the viewscreen. By the map, they were at least another half hour from their destination, and he didn't want to spend it in here. Andros turned to go. Phantom hardly acknowledged him this time as he strode to the Megalift, and Andros didn't look back as the doors slid shut around him.

* * *

Aquitar hadn't surrendered, it turned out—at least, not yet.

"Two weeks," Sera said flatly. "Delphine estimates that her team will hold that much longer—which gives us enough time to do what we must."

"And what," Dari demanded, "must we do?"

Andros glanced at the Inquirian Ranger. She had been silent until now, staring down at the table and toying with the too-long sleeves of her white tunic.

"Zordon," Sera informed them. "Dark Spectre must not capture him. It would be devastating to us."

Andros tried not to sigh as his gaze drifted back to Sera. She sat weary-eyed at the head of the long table, the sleeves of her white jacket rolled up to her elbows, and the silver sash that marked her leader of her team still across her chest. To her right were Wren and Valeria in blue and red; to her left, Kaede, Kenta, and Loris. Violet, Black, and Yellow, the rest of her team.

Dari was beside Valeria, directly across from him, with Phantom beside her.

The table stretched on past the nine of them, empty seats lining the meeting hall. This room had been built to hold five full teams comfortably. Andros estimated that seven could probably have crowded themselves in, but he couldn't think of seven worlds that had a full team of Rangers anymore.

Even when his mother had been a Ranger, this hall would have been filled with fragments.

His eyes fell to his morpher as his fists clenched. The day his parents had been killed had been the day he'd met Zordon of Eltar.

Zordon had been the one to unlock his powers, and later, Zhane's.

Andros wasn't sure if he'd ever forgive Zordon for that.

"Has Dark Spectre not surrounded the planet Aquitar?" Dari was questioning Sera, and Andros forced his attention back to the conversation at hand.

Zordon was the reason Dark Spectre was so insistent on conquering Aquitar. For three thousand years he had been there, mentoring the Rangers who kept him safe. But Dark Spectre wanted Zordon and his powers, and Aquitar was crumbling slowly.

"It's true that the space near Aquitar is mostly overrun by velocifighters and UAE forces," Wren said, leaning forward to look past Valeria. "But we don't need to defeat Dark Spectre right now, which is good, because I doubt that we good manage it with just the nine of us and the Aquitian team. We just need to get Zordon and anyone else out of there, and that I think we can do."

Dari lifted an eyebrow. "Are we to assume, then, that Dark Spectre will allow us to enter Aquitian space, land on the planet, pack up Zordon and his tube, and sail off with him?"

"You're skeptical." Wren sounded amused as she smiled. "That's fair. It won't be easy to do. Zordon is the easiest part, believe it or not. His glass tube can travel physically—I think that's how he got to Aquitar in the first place, all those years ago, but then he can also... I guess you'd say it was teleportation. He can do that, if there's enough energy to start up the process and another tube for him to go to. There is one of those here. So all we have to do to get him out of there is give him a boost and he'll teleport right on over here."

"And as for the rest of us—" Sera's expression had softened as she listened to Wren babble, but the lines on her face tightened as she started to speak again. "We'll be in disguise. Valeria and Loris have spent the past several months building the vehicles that we'll need. They will be enough to get us to the ground."

"And after?" Phantom inquired.

"Once we've seen Zordon to safety, we will remain on Aquitar just long enough to help those who will leave to safety," Sera said quietly. "Rasilia is where many of the Aquitian refugees have gone. Delphine and her team are likely to join them there."

She paused just for a heartbeat before clearing her throat. "Our scanning equipment shows an anomalous reading. We believe that it's possible a portal has opened, and it is oriented in such a way that it's likely it will take us to Aquitar, or near enough."

Dari lifted an eyebrow. "It's possible?"

"Yes, well," Wren broke in, "we'll test it first, obviously, but our other equipment wasn't capable of providing detailed enough information and I've only just finished the scanner that we'll need to use. I was hoping that we'd have been done with it before you'd arrived, but I was still running some tests on it."

"Phantom," Sera said, "if you would be willing—"

"You wish for me to investigate this anomaly for you," Phantom said. "I am willing."

"Thank you." The smallest hint of a smile passed over her face. "Andros will accompany you. Wren, will you fetch the scanner?"

Andros was too glad at the prospect of leaving the room to protest the order. Better to spend several hours in the company of Phantom, who he was used to, than with the Dari and the entire Eltaran team.

"Well, then," Sera said, rising to her feet, "we'll return here once Andros and Phantom Ranger have collected the information we need. That is all."

* * *

"She's been to Inquiris recently," Phantom said quietly, facing the corner where Sera and Dari conversed in low tones. "And she remained there long enough to show the effect of the planet."

"Yes." He'd noticed it, too, when Dari had been silent but for her questions—the compulsion to speak in questions affected all those who visited Inquiris, but it progressed more slowly in those who were not of Inquirian heritage and it would leave them more quickly. Dari was a native-born child of Inquirian parents. It would be some time yet before the effects faded.

And though that meant perhaps she had only spent a day or two on her homeworld, he couldn't imagine it. He hadn't returned to KO-35 since he'd left it, and he had no intentions of doing so until he could return his people to their home.

_I'm sorry_.

"Andros."

He tensed and recoiled, startled more obviously than he would have liked by Phantom's hand on his arm. "Yes?"

Wren was at Phantom's side, her hands full. "I have what you'll need," she said brightly. "It's our newest design, so you shouldn't have any trouble using it—it's much simpler than the last version, the one where you had to plug the scanning equipment into your nav systems console to keep it from giving you the readings backwards if you so much as looked at it wrong. Do you remember that one?" She paused just long to glance at his face. "I guess you never used that one, then. Anyway, all you have to do with this one is turn it on. It'll send all the results to us as you take them, and we'll have them analyzed by the time you get back."

"We'll be back in a few hours," he said, accepting the scanner she handed him with a nod. It was heavier than he'd expected.

"We're having soup for lunch. Loris cooked it himself." She smiled, laying a hand on his arm as he turned to go. "Have a safe journey."

"Thank you," Phantom said quietly.

Andros nodded once more before he turned and left the hall. The corridor was quiet and blessedly empty, and he allowed himself a breath of relief. He had not been in the company of so many people for months now, nearly a year, not since the last time Sera had summoned him to Eltar. It was only in the presence of others that he realized how used to the silence he had grown.

But he had never been the most conversant of people, and Phantom, too, said little. They returned to the Megaship in silence, and as they headed out to the coordinates Sera had specified, they said nothing that wasn't in relation to their mission.

Just for a second, he thought of Zhane. If Zhane were here with him now, Andros knew, he wouldn't be allowed to sit quietly and concentrate on his work. If Zhane were here, he would have been dragged off to the Observatory deck with snacks, or off onto the Simudeck, or off to eat lunch, or... anywhere but here.

If Zhane were here, he would be wishing for this silence.

Andros cleared his throat. "We'll take your ship the rest of the way."

"It does seem the wisest choice," Phantom agreed.

The Megaship was too large of a target, and Phantom's ship had more effective cloaking. So, yes, it was the wisest choice, but that didn't stop Andros from wishing otherwise as he followed Phantom onto the smaller ship. It was hard _not_ to feel crowded when he compared this cockpit to the Megaship's Bridge, and he settled himself awkwardly in the seat off to the side. It was strange, too, not to be in the pilot's seat.

Andros raised his morpher closer to his mouth. "Two hours, DECA."

"Good luck, Andros." Her calm reply made him smile faintly as he lowered his arm.

Silence again. It was both a welcome relief and oddly disconcerting, and he tried not to think on it too much. He fiddled instead with Wren's scanner, drumming his fingers against the sides.

He wondered idly if the sound bothered Phantom, but he neither asked nor ceased doing it, and Phantom said nothing.

Andros stared blankly at the scanner without seeing what the screen displayed, but when it started beeping wildly he knew that there had been nothing there the moment before.

"What is it?" Phantom asked, and Andros frowned down at the screen.

"I... don't know," he said slowly. "It looks like it might—"

He stopped when the ship trembled, nearly dropping the scanner in order to steady himself. "What was _that_?" he demanded, clutching the arm of his seat.

"I cannot say." Phantom was as calm as ever, but Andros thought he detected a hint of worry. "But perhaps we should—"

Phantom's voice faded suddenly, and the scanner tumbled from his hand as Andros fell. The seat his fingers were digging into dissolved as he was pitched forward into a dizzy nothingness. He was falling, falling _up_, and all around him was warmth and quiet, and—a face that he had not seen in far too long, peaceful in sleep.

Andros blinked, once, then twice, then harder as his vision blurred and his breath hitched. "Zhane," he whispered. _"Zhane."_


	3. Chapter II: The ShouldHaveBeen

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the Power Rangers.

**Beyond a Glimmer of Hope**  
**Chapter II: The Should-Have-Been**

Zhane's eyes were closed in sleep, but his chest rose and fell against Andros's with each breath he took, and his body was almost too warm for Andros to be comfortable beneath the blankets.

A vague memory of cold pricked at him, but it faded fast. His dreams always did.

Yawning, he laid his head down again. His back was to the rest of the sleeping bags, but the observatory was quiet but for snoring; he assumed the rest of his team was still asleep.

He should have known better than to agree to this. Now there was a knee digging into his stomach and Zhane was mumbling near his ear. Something about rabbits. Andros was just sleepy enough that it made perfect sense, and closed his eyes again as someone touched his hair...

"I know you're awake," a voice whispered, the words punctuated with a kiss to the back of his neck.

His lips twitched, but he didn't roll over. Or open his eyes. "Am not."

"Are too." She rolled closer, snuggling against his back as she draped an arm over his waist. "What's he talking about this time?"

"Rabbits."

He felt her tremble against him in surpressed laughter. "I don't think one of those would get along well with the cats..."

"Even if it would, you've all adopted enough animals," he said firmly. "We don't need more."

"Aww, but—" She shifted around behind him, propping herself up on one arm to better lean over him. "Only two of them are really ours..."

"No!" He realized he'd forgotten to whisper only when Zhane stirred against him. Wincing, he lowered his voice. "No."

"Mmm..." Her fingers glided up his arm. "Okay, but the next time I catch you snuggling a kitten—"

"I don't _snuggle_."

She giggled in his ear. "You're doing a pretty good impression of it right now, though."

It wasn't her mouth that silenced him. It was a kiss that felt far too enthusiastic to be coming from the same body as the sleepy blue eyes Andros found himself staring into a heartbeat later, but he was hardly complaining when Zhane nuzzled the corner of his lips.

"Morning," he breathed against Zhane's mouth. "How long have you been awake?"

"Long enough to hear about how you hate kittens." Zhane yawned and turned onto his back to stretch. "I'm shocked, Andros, really."

Andros tried not to either sigh or smile as he rolled over onto his other side. He was reasonably sure he failed at both.

It was Ashley's turn to kiss him now, and her eyes sparkled as she touched her mouth to his. "Hi."

He knew he was smiling now, kissing her fingers as she brushed hair out of his eyes. "Morning."

"It is," someone else grumbled at them. "Morning, I mean. And far too early in the morning for all the racket you're making."

"Racket?" Ashley repeated indignantly. "Like you haven't been awake for half an hour."

Andros raised his head. Carlos's was the next sleeping bag over, and from the way he'd buried himself into it Andros never would've guessed he was awake.

"I haven't been."

"You would've been, if you had to listen to yourself roll around," Cassie said. Despite the yawn in her words, her voice wasn't sleepy. "And at least you're not sharing a sleeping bag with someone who wakes up at the first sign of light."

Andros pushed himself all the way up onto his side in order to see over Ashley and Carlos. Cassie was on her back, hands clasped behind her head and her eyes closed as her face was bathed in light. Beside her was Miranda, murmuring something that made a smile quirk across her face.

Beyond them, TJ snored.

Andros shook his head, his eyes drifting back to Cassie and Miranda. Cassie's eyes were still closed, but, just for an instant, Miranda held his gaze. Cassie was right; though her hair fell across her face in tangles, there was no hint of sleep in Miranda's dark eyes.

Carlos rolled over.

Andros lay himself down again, relaxing between Ashley and Zhane. They both shifted closer to him and he closed his eyes.

He was falling before his head touched the pillow. It lasted only a second, maybe less, but that was all the time it took for all the warmth to be leeched from him.


	4. Chapter III: The After

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Power Rangers.

**Notes: **This chapter includes mentions of non-graphic major character death, and another character grieving. This is the hardest story I've ever written, and it may be difficult to read.

**Beyond a Glimmer of Hope**

**Chapter III: The After**

"I wish you would talk to me, Andros."

"You must really be worried, then. If you're talking like that." His bedroom lights brightened in her indignation. "Your assessment of my concern for you is accurate."

Andros almost smiled. Almost. "I'm fine, DECA."

She didn't reply.

Andros caught himself before he closed his eyes, and continued to stare up at the bottom of the bunk above him. Zhane stared back at him. Zhane and... Ashley. Her name was unfamiliar in his mouth, awkward on his tongue when he whispered it aloud, but—she had been his lover. She and Zhane both.

_His _Zhane had never touched him that way.

His Zhane would never touch him that way.

If he let himself, he could still hear Zhane scream. That was one memory five years had not dulled.

Remembering too closely was just one more thing he was not in the habit of doing too often. Anger he could use; he channeled that into something more productive. But grief that remained raw and shame that had seeped so deep that he would never be clean of it... that made him a liability. He could not afford to become distracted, and especially not now.

But he couldn't forget that kiss, either.

"Andros?" DECA sounded distinctly worried when he swung his legs over the side of his bunk and stood up. "Where are you going?"

She followed him down the hall when he ignored her. "Are you certain you want to do this?"

He supposed he shouldn't have been surprised that she knew where he was going. "Leave me alone."

"Andros—"

"That's an order."

She was silent.

* * *

His hands were sweaty. Andros paused with his fingertips still on the keypad, lowering his head. _Don't be stupid. _There were no miracles waiting for him on the other side.

And yet—he hoped.

Hoped that when the door swung open there would be more than silent monitors and a frosted over coffin. That Zhane would be waiting for him on the other side. That he could say everything he'd been too afraid to say until it was too late.

That he wouldn't have to be alone anymore.

Andros closed his eyes, and slowly lowered his hand.

"Andros?"

"I—" He wished his voice were steadier. "I thought I told you to leave me alone."

"You did." DECA waited a beat. Waiting for him to argue, maybe, but he didn't. "Do you intend to enter the chamber?"

He thought of Zhane, so pale and cold, and his skin prickled in that way that was searingly hot and cold all at once. "No. Just—" Andros swallowed. His chest was slowly tightening in a way that made it hard to speak. "Is he really in there?"

"Yes," she said gently.

He shouldn't ask, because she would be nothing less than truthful. "Is he really dead?"

"Yes, Andros," she said, quietly now. "I'm sorry."

And like that, the smallest sparkle of hope that he had kept so carefully guarded he hadn't known it was even there quivered—maybe she was wrong, maybe if he turned the monitors on, maybe if he just went in there and saw for himself—and extinguished itself, leaving him choking for breath on his knees.

Because Zhane was dead.

Zhane had been dead all along, and Andros had known it. He'd known it every minute of the last five years and he'd mourned, and he'd wished to go back and known that it was impossible—all until that other Zhane had kissed him and made him hope.

What gave him the right?

Andros balled his fists as tears welled hot and angry in his eyes. After all these years, what gave Zhane the right to come back into his life and toy with him like this? What was this a punishment for?

_I wasn't the one who went away._

Zhane should have fought harder. He should have fought _better_.

He should have loved Andros enough to live.

Andros tilted his head back against the wall, his chest so tight that it was all he could do to gasp for breath between sobs. Would it have mattered, he asked himself again, if he'd told Zhane how he'd felt? If he'd kissed him that morning and held him and made him swear over and over to keep the promise they'd made to each other?

_We'll fight as a team forever._

Zhane _lied._

Zhane wouldn't have wanted to lie to him.

He shouldn't be angry with Zhane.

Zhane wasn't the one who'd been so tired it was all he could do to stay on his feet, too slow and distracted to see the sword until it was already on a downward arc. If Andros had been a better Ranger, if he hadn't failed over and over and over again, then Zhane would be alive and their people wouldn't be lost and scattered and Dark Spectre wouldn't be within grasping reach of victory.

But now he was, and all because Andros hadn't been paying attention.

It wasn't right.

No one should have ever trusted him with this power. Had Zordon known, when he'd given Andros his dead mother's morpher? Had he known how clumsily Andros would wield the Power? Had he? Then he bore a share of the blame, and maybe he deserved it if they couldn't get to him before Dark Spectre did. Because in his own way, he'd killed Zhane too.

His eyes were so blurred by tears, he nearly missed it—the faint, quick flash of light beside him and the way the hair on his arms rose up in response to that ghostly not-quite-touch. She had no hands, and she wore bits and pieces of his parents in her face.

It had comforted him once.

"I thought I disabled your hologram." It was the easiest thing he could think to say.

"You responded well to this once," was all she said.

Andros closed his eyes. "How much longer to Eltar?"

"ETA is approximately forty minutes," she said calmly, and sat with him for a time.


End file.
